Opening/closing bodies for vehicles typically include a handle unit for opening or closing the opening/closing bodies. As disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, a door handle of a sliding door generally includes a movable part, which is a handgrip, and is capable of releasing restraint (fully closed lock) of the sliding door by a lock mechanism by pulling the handgrip through manipulation of the door handle in the opening direction.
In such a conventional structure, however, even when the sliding door is at a fully open position, the door handle first needs to be manipulated in the opening direction to release the restraint (fully open lock) of the sliding door by the lock mechanism. The sliding door thus cannot be closed through a motion continuous with the unlocking motion. This is one reason for a reduction in convenience for users.
To address this problem, for example, in the handle unit disclosed in Patent Document 2, even if the handle unit is manipulated in a closing direction, the handgrip is allowed to move in that direction in addition to the case where the handle unit is manipulated in the opening direction. The handle unit is thus operable by manipulation inputs in two directions corresponding to an opening operation and a closing operation of the sliding door. That is, the fully open lock is released by a manipulation input in the closing direction to the handle unit. Thus, even when the sliding door is at the fully open position, the sliding door is closed through motion continuous with the unlocking motion as when the sliding door is opened from a fully closed position. Allowing the sliding door to be opened and closed through an intuitive manipulation input by a user to the handle unit as described above improves operability and convenience.
Conventionally, opening/closing body control devices for vehicles have also been proposed that allow an opening/closing body of a vehicle to be opened and closed by a drive source like a door opening/closing apparatus disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 3. Employing such an opening/closing body control device for a vehicle significantly reduces the burden on users.